This weekend was huge for Kickboxing. Firstly, It's Showtime promoted It's Showtime 57&58, featuring some very important fights and putting on an incredibly entertaining card. That wasn't it, though, was it? On top of that, Glory Sports International announced -- from that show -- that they had purchased It's Showtime and will absorb It's Showtime's staff and fighters into the Glory team, shaking the Kickboxing world up like never before. Rian Scalia (@rianscalia) and myself (@dvewlsh / @liverkickdotcom) talk you through what was a historic weekend for Kickboxing.

When it rains it pours, and right now it will pour for FEG. Amid reports of FEG's financial woes and possible bankruptcy and morbid fate, Bob Sapp decided to speak out about FEG after the Dynamite!! 2010 disaster where his fight with Wakakirin never happened. Tanikawa told fans and the press that Bob Sapp attempted to renegotiate before the fight and that his "fighting spirit" was low. Seeing as though Bob Sapp made himself a millionaire in Japan, he couldn't let that sit. He spoke with MMAJunkie and some of what he said was known, some was rather shocking, like FEG not even having its own office anymore. Sapp was contracted to fight for $30,000.

Instead, he claims FEG executive Sadaharu Tanikawa offered him $15,000 shortly after he arrived in the country the week prior to the event. He refused and made a counter-offer of $25,000, a sum which he claims is half of what the promotion owed him for previous services.

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Sapp claims he has a contract with FEG that verifies the rate of pay he was expected to receive for the Dec. 31 fight, as well as other fights, though he said the promotion has yet to honor the terms of that deal. During the promotion's heyday in the mid-2000s, he said he was routinely paid between $350,000 and $400,000 to fight.

Sapp went on to explain that K-1 and DREAM are "extremely broke" and that he has no expectations for them. Could this be the last we see of Bob Sapp in K-1 or DREAM? [source]

We are very pleased to announce that on May 26th LiverKick.com will be partnering with Glory Sports International to bring you the live stream of the big Glory event in Stockholm, Sweden. On May 26th Glory will kickoff their World Series of Kickboxing tournaments with the First 16 for the 70kg division while also hosting a slew of super fights, including Gokhan Saki vs. Carter Williams and Semmy Schilt vs. Errol Zimmerman.

As mentioned, we will be partnering with Glory to host the PPV right here on LiverKick, so you do not need to leave your favorite source for Kickboxing news and coverage on fight day. The event costs $15 and will begin at 12:30pm Eastern time/9:30am Pacific time/18:30 GMT +2. Go ahead and bookmark this page, as this will be where you go to order the event on fight day. All you have to do is click the "play" arrow on the video and then click the "Buy Access to this Event" button and it should be pretty straightforward from there. If you just want to watch the event, make sure to click "Single Video Access" when you're in the process of buying it.

To many fans, Zack Mwekassa's brutal knockout on Pat Barry was a surprise, including the thousands in attendance on Saturday night. Mwekassa had made a name for himself for the fans who were watching, but he also proved a point; Kickboxing is a very different sport than MMA. Pat Barry voluntarily left the UFC after two brutal knockout losses to lesser opponents, Shawn Jordan and Soa Paleli. The big story, though, was that Pat Barry had chosen to fight for GLORY over fighting for the UFC.

One can only assume that GLORY are ready to roll out the red carpet to similar defectors, especially after someone like Dustin Jacoby became a Spike TV darling with his very limited UFC exposure, only to turn into a credible Kickboxer. For Pat Barry it seemed like all of the pieces fit together; Pat had a moderately successful Kickboxing career in the past, found himself booked on K-1 events between 2005 and 2007 before going on to have an explosive UFC career. Pat Barry was known as a slugger, a guy who put on entertaining fights, with many glazing over his last few fights (or any post-Kongo, really) and ignoring the fact that of his seven losses in the UFC, four were by Knockout.

That's a lot for a striker, especially a lot for a guy looking to make a go of a Kickboxing career. But, all that we can do now is reflect on the situation and Monday morning quarterback, although there is something very important to take away from this situation; you can't just walk into Kickboxing after being a MMA fighter and expect success. Kickboxing picked up a bum rap after K-1 started with some exotic booking decisions, such as bringing in Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi, Tatsuya Kawajiri and a few others into K-1 bouts. When they saw success, many saw Kickboxing as a "lesser" sport, one that MMA fighters could walk into and see success in with ease.

GLORY 10 Middleweight Champion Joe Schilling has said this many times; there are no easy fights in GLORY. That is something that Pat Barry should have taken to heart and something for future MMA-defectors to consider when coming into Kickboxing. You can't just waltz right in and become a champion, you have to put in the work and it is going to take time. Some will see Pat Barry's loss as a failure on GLORY's part, but on the contrary, Pat Barry's loss shows just how serious of a sport it is, as well as it being a lot more than just a "part" of MMA like Laura Prepon so ignorantly stated at GLORY 10 during an on-screen interview.

You know, with all of the hype going into the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP, you'd think an interview with Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion from ESPN wouldn't slip through the cracks, but it did. To me, that speaks volumes for just how tired of hearing about K-1's financial problems people are, as well as how few people pay attention to ESPN's MMA Live. No offense intended for MMA Live, but the close affiliation to UFC and the complete lack of coverage of the rest of the world of MMA (it serves as an afterthought, usually) has made the show less-than a must-see for most fans.

Well, regardless of how worthwhile it is to watch MMA Live, over the weekend they spoke with Alistair Overeem, and most MMA websites picked up the interview for purposes of predictions and to gaze into Overeem's dreamy eyebrows, but what struck me was that Alistair Overeem claims that K-1 has yet to pay him and that he would actually prefer not to fight in Japan this year, he would rather just fight in America.

This just serves as a gentle reminder of how business matters in Japan have effected the sport of kickboxing as a whole. If everything is in order for K-1, it looks like Alistair Overeem has no plans on fighting for them this year and will continue to fight in the United States for Strikeforce instead. Watch the below video at about the 4:30 mark as Anik asks if K-1 has paid him and Overeem jovially says they didn't. Ouch.

There aren't many kickboxers in the world that are as decorated as Andy Souwer is. Andy Souwer is a three time Shootboxing champion and a two time K-1 World MAX Champion, which in the world of Middleweight kickboxing is tremendous. Souwer is one of the few dominant fighters of the division, with his name forever etched in stone alongside the likes of Buakaw Por. Pramuk, Masato and most recently Giorgio Petrosyan. LiverKick caught up with Andy Souwer to discuss his relationship with K-1, what his future plans are in kickboxing and if he has his sights set on the world of MMA at all.

A big thanks to Team Souwer's manager Eddy Coutinho for setting up the interview as well as helping with the translations.

LiverKick.com: Have you ever had issues being paid by K-1?

Andy Souwer: K1 has paid everything they owed me. There are rumours about K1 not paying me, but that is not true. There was some delay in payment, but it happened.

LK: Were you surprised not to be invited to the MAX GP this year and how do you feel about K-1's future?

AS: I was very surprised not to be invited by K1. I won it twice and fought 4 finals. Very strange.

LK: What are your thoughts on his recent Pajonsuk fight?

AS: The fight was not exciting for the spectators. I was not totally recovered from my back injury and I had the feeling Panjunsuk did not really want to fight.

LK: How do you feel about facing Aussie Ouzgni?

AS: Aussie is the darkhorse in this fight, but he is very, very dangerous. He is very tall and has good knees and kicks. Aussie is not my favourite opponent, but to be the best you have to beat every opponent.

LK: How has your putting on mass in the past 3-4 years affected the way you train and prepare for fights? In particular, is it a large weight cut?

AS: Normally I walk around at 75 kg., so I only have to drop 5 kilo's. I am used to losing weight without losing strength, so it is no problem for me. I have a good team who helps me with training and advice.

After the break Souwer discusses his roots and future...

LK: How did you get started in kickboxing?

AS: I started kickboxing when I was seven years old, at the age of 16 I fought a world title fight and I won. At the age of 19 Shootboxing searched for a good fighter who was strong, but would not win the tournament. My trainer suggested me, but that was a mistake, as they wanted me to lose. I won the tournament and after that I won it two times more, hahaha, funny how things can go.

LK: Do you have a time in mind for when you would like to retire? Do you have something you wants to do after fighting?

AS: I want to quit fighting at the age of 30 (ed note: Souwer is currently 28). I am already busy with my own gym and some other things. First I have to be the number one in the world by beating Petrosyan before I can retire.

LK: What are your thoughts on the current political situation in regards to kickboxing in Holland and your thoughts on the combat sports scene in Holland, in general?

AS: I like my sport, but I also see that a lot of people use our sport for the wrong purpose. The political climate now is against our sport, that is bad for now, but it will take the bad seeds away at the end.

LK: Have you diversified your training over the years? Holland has a number of great gyms, do you jump around? How about his strength and conditioning programs? Does you train in Thailand or Japan?

AS: I have never trained in Thailand, because it is not at all similar to the Dutch style. My kickboxing is improving; I have a boxing trainer, a kickboxing trainer, a strength trainer, a physical therapist and a pads trainer. All of these specialists are to improve my fight style.

LK: How do you like Japan and its fans? Holland and its fans?

AS: I love Japan and its fans, over the years it has become my second home country. Fighting in Holland is very special every time. I have been away for a long time and I love every fight like it is my first.

LK: American fans love watching you, do you plan on fighting in the US any time soon?

AS: I love them too. I get a lot of emails from American fans and I am delighted. I will visit America soon for some training. Yeah MMA, here I come ; )

We just passed the halfway point of March, which means that the return of Badr Hari is just under two months away. He is preparing vigorously for the challenge of French Muay Thai fighter Tony Gregory (yes, this is correct, it is how It's Showtime, K-1 and his website list him). It isn't that anyone is giving Gregory a lot of a chance as much as we all have high hopes for Badr Hari's first fight in a year.

Mike's Gym on Facebook just posted an album of photos of the Bad Boy himself training with newer Mike's Gym recruit, Sergei Laschenko. [source]

We are all-but-done writing about FEG's financial woes. At this point what needs to be said has been said, and there is a lot of information on this topic that will never be released to the public. Until FEG makes their move, it is a dead horse that I'm sick of beating. So I've seen some articles and questions floating around that pertain to the future of DREAM and K-1, which of course revolves around television and ownership.

What many people tend to forget is way back to the death of PRIDE, the one-off event known as "Yarennoka" and the formation of DREAM. DREAM is not simple a FEG production. There is a company called "Real Entertainment" that was formed by what was left of DSE, and all of those great video packages on those DREAM events, Lenne Hardt screaming out fighters' names and even lots of the fighters themselves participating in DREAM? Thank Real Entertainment. DREAM is a co-production between RE and FEG, which is why you'll never see DREAM on Fuji TV.

So now, to fully understand how this impacts FEG, I'll hand this over to Mike Hackler of MMA-Japan.com, who did some digging and found out exactly what Real Entertainment's services mean to FEG.

FEG is in debt to Real Entertainment around $7 million USD. Real Entertainment's involvement is a large reason why there are problems getting a TV deal done, due to the fact they still have management from DSE. FUJI has no interest in a television deal, solely for this reason. Real Entertainment is also responsible for paying the fighters (as to what extent, I do not know). Many fighters contracts are with Real Entertainment and not FEG.

FEG is stuck. Ishii owns the rights and the brand names with FEG. This makes reorganizing the company extremely difficult, if not impossible. That said, it has been confirmed that PUJI has backed out of this altogether. As any private equity does, FEG is reluctant to allow for managerial changes to take place. This creates a brick wall for outside investors to get involved.

This beautifully articulates how FEG is stuck in a tough position, and some of the power struggles that are going on during this downtime for K-1 and DREAM. Many people I've spoken to have talked about (off the record, as always) Tanikawa wanting to form a new company and leave Ishii out of the business entirely, but as long as Ishii owns the name "K-1" it will be impossible to break away from his influence. [source]

When Steven Seagal first was shown with Anderson Silva at UFC 117, we all kind of chuckled and said, "hey that is pretty cool." When he walked out with Anderson at UFC 126, it was kind of funny again, but at this point it began to appear odd. Steven Seagal is an Akido instructor and former martial arts action star who now has his own dubious television series about him being a "lawman."

I grew up on Martial Arts and action films, as I feel like most men my age did. Guys like Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme were the reason to get involved in martial arts; to be as bad ass as they were. Of course, years pass, and as they do, the stark reality set upon me that JCVD had serious substance problems and that Steven Seagal was a terrible fraud. Both men fell off the radar a bit, but Seagal's career seemed to hold strong (still sparse, but it didn't fall off completely) while Van Damme's seemed to all-but disappear. Seagal had long been the butt of the joke when it comes to Hollywood circles, but still got work due to his popularity and how ridiculous of a persona he carried around with him.

Enter the modern day, where JCVD is re-building his career his way and even looks to re-enter the world of fighting, while Steven Seagal is on a reality television series and apparently trying to weasel his way into the fighting world as well. This past weekend, Anderson Silva defeated Vitor Belfort with a front high kick, a staple in just about every form of martial art that involves kicking. So, much to my surprise, Anderson Silva claimed that Steven Seagal taught him the kick. It was funny, worth a chuckle. Then, much to my disdain, this interview with Ariel Helwani came out.

Seagal claims to have taught Anderson Silva one of the most basic kicking techniques, a first week kick in Tae Kwan Do, which incidentally, was Anderson Silva's first martial art that he took when he was fourteen. Now, as anyone who has studied striking will note, there are minute differences between techniques in different forms of martial arts, but generally speaking, one form of kick does not differ too greatly from another. This is a very basic technique that Anderson Silva used almost out of context in a MMA fight, and caught everyone by surprise. For Steven Seagal to claim there is some sort of mystical "death" technique, or that he knew some secret to making the kick work better is, well, par for the course with his history.

In that interview, he discusses with Helwani how MMA is both good and bad for traditional martial arts; first it makes the public more aware, and second, it shows behind the curtain into a "secret world" that you weren't meant to see. I think my eyes nearly rolled back in my head. If anything, Mixed Martial Arts has shown the general public that there is a man behind the curtain, that there is no Oz. There are men like Seagal everywhere, who have conned people into believing that with intense, personal training from masters such as himself, you can learn some crazy secret that will help you transcend reality.

The gall he had to claim he taught Anderson Silva a technique that your average six year old can do (of course not with the force or application) was pure Seagal grandstanding. Seagal showed cracks in his story when Helwani asked him how he met Anderson Silva, he was caught on the spot and said that he didn't remember, then you could almost see the gears turning in his head as Helwani is preparing another question and he corrects himself and claims that Anderson Silva sent him a "memo" that he wanted to learn Steven's secret death techniques.

Anderson Silva and his training partners are not fools, nor are they children, if you believe for one second that this happened, you probably need to review some of the history of Steven Seagal. Seagal has lied about nearly everything in the book, from his place of birth, to adultery, to how many wives he has had, to education, work history, the list goes on and on. There have been an endless stream of interviews, op-eds and exposes on him since he became popular, with Spy Magazine discussing how his "CIA background" is a complete sham, and how he actually had mafia ties and attempted to hire hit men to take care of members of the media who "wronged him." If you search Google for "Steven Seagal Fraud" you get endless results. Check this out for some documented history.

Just because certain people claim to have more knowledge does not mean that they are correct. Understand that basic kinetics dictates that every technique in martial arts is done a certain way, and has been over years, because it is effective. If there was a way to enhance that technique, it would be canonical. Steven Seagal is an aging, overweight actor and stunt man who has nothing real to teach to accomplished martial artists. My question for you is are you buying or selling, and my question for Seagal and Anderson's camp is how much is Seagal paying you? Seriously, he has to be paying them something, right? Because if I were an accomplished martial artist and world champion, I know the last thing I'd need is an over-the-hill actor to tell me how I should fight, especially when said actor has no history fighting himself, unless I was doing so as a big joke or he was paying me to be his friend.

So after the UFC fights last night, I searched my twitter and Facebook walls and notice the usual talk of the action in the cage. As expected, most felt sorry for Anderson Silva who suffered a horrific shin break after his kick was checked in the second round. However the talk seemed to take on a new life, as I studied the trainers and coaches in the sport. It seems like all of them had an opinion on why it happened and how to avoid it. This was in response to their students, who in bunches started asking how it happened and if it could happen to them. As a coach of several UFC level fighters and high level kickboxers, I too got many texts and questions about the shin break. I hope to assure all of you that this is really rare and how it shouldn't effect how you teach techniques.

First of all, the main reason this scares everyone is because of who it happened to. Its just like steroids, who gets caught is what makes us take notice. If this happened to some undercard guy it would have been sad, but no one would have talked about it. Its because it happened to an all time great, who resume wise, showed way more muay thai skill sets than his opponent. If it were to happen to anyone, it should't have been Silva. No one imagines themselves a journeymen, but as a great. So when we see someone great get hurt, it reminds us of our own frailties and inabilities. If it happens to an undercard fighter, than that fighter was just unlucky, if it happens to a legend, than we feel that no one is safe, because these athletes are have dream careers, and no one gets injured in dreams.

Before I get into my thesis, I will recreate the scene from a striking coaches perspective (This is all on my first look perspectively the way, I have no re-watched the fight yet.) Chris Weidman showed a simple game plan, either be offensive or defensive, never exchange, thats how people get caught. After taking round one, he came out defensive, throwing almost no offense and waiting on Silva. Silva, who showed age for the first time, looking a bit slower and lacking his usual fast twitch explosion, began to look for lead left hands, which Weidman avoided by not exchanging, keeping the fight a battle of taking turns. After Silva missed a few long left hands, Weidman knew the kick was coming so he waited on them. Silva attacked the the lead leg first and Weidman checked it, which significantly reduces the chances of that leg attacking for a while, so Weidman waited for the left leg. Silva threw it, he checked it, and Silva broke his leg. The kick actually looked like it scored, because Weidman's leg shot back after the impact, but he was fine and Silva was done.

In response, I have read several long Facebook post, I saw a few videos on technique, all explaining why the injury happened and how a more technical kick would have kept this from happening. Some of the videos had some solid points and some things that everyone can learn from. They all mentioned things like turning the hip up more, making sure the middle of the shin scores and not the side, etc. Good points. Overall, I feel that people are going a bit too far thinking that one of the greatest fighters of all time was suddenly let down by his technical inabilities. Yet I will go further.

First of all, I don't care how great of a kicker you are, I don't care how great of a coach you are, how much you drill, or how much film you watch, it is impossible to throw a perfect kick every single time. There are so many different types of kicks that work for so many different types of fighters, that most of the time, situation provides kick location far more than the will of technique. To assume that perfected technique practice will provide the accurate look for fight preparation, is to assume 7 on 7 football prepares you for an NFL pass rush. I will go further with that analogy. You can look at a NFL Quarterback and use bad technique to describe what happens to their bad passes. Yet a lot of the time, situation leads to how they throw. You will see them throw off balance, side arm, flip passes, all of this is created by situation, meaning that the proper throw isn't the best throw. Not to mention, situation prevents them from using the perfect technique in the first place. Striking is not an exact art. Throwing it with perfect technique won't always land and throwing it wrong won't always miss. The perfect shot could break your hand, the wide shot could score without damage. Whether you delivering Giorgio Petrosyan like precision or Dzhabar Askerov's controlled aggression in his wide shots; there are a lot of ways to land and each fighter, low level or elite, works it out best for themselves. So many different things work in this game and even the perfect kick is subjected to the injuries of the game. Now I am not saying that there is no value in throwing the proper technique, nor am I suggesting that Silva was in a hurried situation that led to an improper kick. I am only suggesting that if you feel that you need to inform your fighters that this happened because of an improper kick and throwing the perfect kick will avoid this, I do not feel it accurately represents what will happen in an actual fight.

Many may feel that this helps, but hearing technical combat advice gives you more confidence moving forward. For those I would suggest a term I use for my fighters, "Don't throw it naked!" What I mean by that is if you want to kick, dress it up with punches. If your opponent has to adjust to punches, its easier to score the kicks and vice versa. Silva didn't really throw combinations in the round, he loaded up on singles. First with right hands, then with a lead kick, then a power rear leg kick. As I mentioned before, Weidman was waiting on it. Its hard to wait on shots if multiple shots are coming at multiple areas. I will give you an example from kickboxing as this is a kickboxing site after all. Lets look at the recent Glory Welterweight championship bout between Nieky Holzken and Joseph Valtelinni. There was a lot of kicks scored and a lot of kicks checked in that fight. But the majority of the kicks got threw due to hiding them behind combinations. Also kick timing. Kick after the other fighter finishes throwing their own offense, throw a combination without kicks, then hide the kick in the next series of combos. In the first round, Holzken checks one of Valtelinni's rear leg low kicks at the 2:18 mark of the round. Valtelinni then throws a switch kick with the lead leg to the body, a short kick to the inside of the lead leg with his same lead leg. He then throws a combinations and steps off. Nieky throws a combo and Valtelinni came back to the rear leg low kick after giving it time to recover. He didn't just wait it out and throw hard with the opposite leg, he gave it time to rest, using his first kick to the body, not risking it low incase it got checked too, leading him to take a break from kicking with both legs. His low kick to the inside leg wasn't with brute force, he tested it first, scoring it simple and looking to score bigger damage later. He patiently used offense to recover his leg. This is all accomplished by not throwing it naked, coming with offensive diversity is the best way to keep someone from timing your kicks enough to check them strong.

Finally, people need to realize how much of a unicorn getting your leg checked really is. I have literally watched ten's of thousands of fights. I watch every kickboxing, Muay Thai, and most high level MMA fights I can get my hands on. I can count on my hands how many times someone has broken there leg due to a leg check. As scary as it sounds, I can actually think of more guys who have died in fights than who have broken shins. It is really rare that it happens. It happening to an all time great doesn't mean that it will be an epidemic assurance that everyone needs to prepare for. It is not the flu and everyone is in need of flu shots now. Peter Aerts once injured his leg in a K-1 World Grand Prix bout against Francois Botha. After the fight the kickboxing world didn't reevaluate how they do things. They saw it for what it was, a fluke accident that can even happen to an all time great. There have been hundreds of K-1 fights before and after that, I can think of less than five in which someone got injured. It really is an anomaly that it happened and it should be treated as such. Don't feel like you have to change anything because of the unfortunate situation to Silva. Your coaching won't keep it from happening and it won't cause it to happen, it just happens.

Steven Wright is a fighter, writer, podcaster and most notably a striking coach, working with Team Takeover. You might recognize him from Johny Hendricks' corner. Listen to his Podcast, Warman's Kickfighting Show (http://lordgaul.podbean.com/) and check him out on Twitter, twitter.com/steventhewarman